Our Adventures

Today was Megan’s day for snowboarding - over Thanksgiving weekend I took Bridgette (but forgot the camera). She has been anxiously looking forward to snowboarding this year - especially since neither of them got to go out last year. Now that they’re a little older it went a lot easier… well… sort of. First we learnt the crab-walk - essential for any snowboarder to get around. It’s awkward and you body seems to tell you it’s just not natural, and it isn’t but it’s the best option for scooting around. It’s kinda like scooting along on a skateboard or scooter, but your forward foot is sideways and strapped in. She tried all kinds of other ways of doing this, but eventually concluded that the conventional method is the best. We spent some time on the magic carpet and small slope learning some basics such as keeping the board on it’s edge. It progressed slowly, but she was able to get on and off the magic carpet all by herself and clip in and out of the board. Quite a milestone! She enjoyed just keeping the board flat and sliding down the hill - and of course, on such a small incline you hardly see the point of doing anything else. Beside that the slope takes you right to the foot of the magic carpet and so she would slide right where she needed to get on the magic carpet. Best of all, Megan met a new friend, Kylie who was also learning on her second time out.

So we abruptly end playing around on the magic carpet for the real thing. The ski-lift was a lot of fun, except unloading, we always seemed to crash at the end, and once Megan wiped right at dismount area and the chair went whizzing over her head - not too much fun, but she likes telling the story. Eventually we figure out that because on the magic carpet Megan could leave one foot off the board to propel herself out of the way, she used the same approach on the ski-lift which caused her to lag behind and since I was holding her side, we both went crashing to the ground. After we identified the cause and resolved the issue, unloading was pretty smooth - no more crashes (Megan is still a little apprehensive of the unload though). Going down the hill was slow, Megan would comfortable turn the board across the slope and keep the board on it’s edge to progress down at a very slow speed. About half-way down it was lunch time and she was thirsty, but the chalet was on the opposite side of the slope. My deal was that she had to make it to the chalet to get her drink. I didn’t think we were going to make it. Megan didn’t like that instant rush of speed and would keep plopping to the ground meaning that she never made any lateral progress - only vertical. But the thought of liquid refreshment was enough enticement and she did it. She kept standing and on the edge and got right to the chalet. So there were a few tears in between, but we won’t mention those. We stopped for lunch - lucky charms, yogurt and water - she was really hot, it was hot out there… 36 degrees (+2 Celcius). Lunch proved to be a wonderful refresher and she was ready to hit the slopes. She was ready and hit the slopes with confidence, she could go down, and slow down without falling, the board control was very impressive. Her own goal was to get down the hill without falling, and she did.

It was cute as Megan shouted “Hello Kylie” while we in the ski-left and poor Kylie was looking all around and ended up wiping out. They would shout back and forth to each other when one was on the slope and the other on the lift. Progress was really fast from here and her confidence was pretty good. She really had a blast and just kept wanting to go again and again… and we did, the sun had set already and the flood lights were on. She has the falling leaf down pat, now we just need to work on the S’s down the slope, and coming down face toward the slope - which is weird since you can’t see where the heck you’re going anyway, but it’s a necessary skill. Enjoy the pictures!!!